Dave Foreman

By STEVE RASMUSSEN

To save the planet from the mass extinctions of species that human overpopulation and climate change are causing, human beings need to ìrewildî it, EarthFirst! co-founder Dave Foreman told about 75 people in his keynote lecture at UNC Ashevilleís Earthfest celebration in the Humanities Lecture Hall on April 28.

But before describing the worldwide efforts he is helping lead to create networks of wildlands and return wolves, cougars, and other big carnivores to their native habitats, he thanked ìeverybody here for getting rid of ëTimber Charlieíî ó Charles Taylor, the former Brevard congressman and a powerful logging advocate who was voted out of office in 2006.

Foreman, a onetime saboteur of bulldozers and logging trucks who helped make ìmonkeywrenchingî a household word in the 1970s and ë80s, referred only once to his eco-radical roots, muttering while he struggled to get a slide projector to work: ìIím used to having technology fail ó sometimes even helping it!î

He focused his talk instead on ìwhat we can do on the ground to deal with the catastrophic problems facing us.î He started by describing the purpose of the 1964 Wilderness Act ó ìone of, I think, the most ambitious, farsighted, wise and poetic pieces of legislation everî ó as to ìsecure for the American people the enduring resource of wilderness ó enduring.î

Since then, he said, science has discovered much about mass species extinctions over the past 500 million years. But ìnot since the dinosaurs went extinct have we seen an extinction period like today. And this one ... we canít blame it on a comet hitting Earth. This one is due to us. Itís due to six and a half billion human beings on the planet manufacturing, warring, traveling, doing all the things we do.î

Foreman detailed a tragic parade of past manmade extinctions caused by overhunting and overdevelopment ó the dodo bird, the bison, the prairie dog, the passenger pigeon, the Carolina parakeet ó and continued through the present day with the destruction of the great forests of the Amazon, Canada, and the American Southeast, the depletion of the oceans and the imminent loss of the polar bear because of global warming.

Pointing to a slide of an Arizona billboard urging consumers to ìbuy a house in the wilderness before itís too late,î he remarked, ìYou realize how many subdivisions are named after what they destroy, just like how many college football teams are named after the critter thatís been wiped out in that state?

ìThe best way to protect species from extinction, the best way to protect intact habitat,î he asserted, ìis through protected areas, such as wilderness areas and national parks in the United States.î

He described two principles as key to that protection: Large or interconnected habitats are better than small or fragmented ones, and large carnivores ó panthers, wolves, sharks, and so on ó need to be protected or reintroduced.

Reintroducing large carnivores is especially controversial, he noted, given mankindís long history of hunting and eradicating ìuntamableî wild beasts. ìTheyíre OK in a zoo where we have them under control, but we wonít tolerate them in the wild,î he observed, citing the Anglo-Saxon legend of Beowulf. ìBut we need them.î

He described a study by Michael SoulÈ of small wild patches of grassland that were surrounded by the suburbs of San Diego, Calif. The patches that still had populations of coyotes also had thriving populations of songbirds, ìbut when the coyotes disappeared, the birds disappeared. Why was that? Mesocarnivores!î he exclaimed, showing a picture of his own pet cat.
ìWhere there are no coyotes about,î he explained, ìcats will boldly go where no cat has ever gone beforeî ó and decimate wild bird populations. But the presence of coyotes scares cats away, and coyotes also keep the populations of other bird-hunting animals such as skunks and possums in check.

In Yellowstone National Park, Foreman continued, the National Park Service exterminated wolves in the last century to allow the elk to flourish. But the elk, he said, became ìfat, lazy meadow potatoes,î overgrazing aspen and other saplings to the point of endangering the survival of several tree species. After wolves were reintroduced a decade ago and began hunting them, the elk fled back to their traditional deep-forest habitat, and new generations of trees were able to grow once more.

ìHealthy ecosystems really need the presence of large carnivores,î he said. ìIf we wipe out the guys with big teeth, we see the ecosystem begin to unravel in lots of ways. If we put the large carnivores back into an ecosystem, we see the ecosystem beginning to heal itself. But large carnivores, whether theyíre red wolves, or Eastern cougars, or jaguars, need habitat. They need roadless habitat, and lots of it. And because thereís not enough of that habitat, outside of the boreal and arctic regions of North America, they need secure wildlife movement linkages between their core habitats. This is called ërewilding.íî

The need for rewilding is now accepted all over the world, he noted, and efforts to expand existing protected areas and connect them with corridors of wilderness are being carried out by groups such as the Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition and through efforts including the Sky Islands Wildlands Network, the Spine of the Continent Initiative and his own Rewilding Institute.

ìWe need to think big in terms of space. But we also have to think big in terms of time ó we have to think long term,î he said, comparing the effort to the building of the medieval cathedrals. ìAnd we have to think big in terms of vision. We need to practice conservation on the scale of the continent.î

ìObviously, most of North America canít be rewilded,î he conceded. But on a map of the continent, he pointed out four ìmegalinkagesî ó interconnected corridors of still-intact wilderness running across its northern region from Alaska to Newfoundland, and down along the mountain ranges of the Sierra Nevada and the Rockies into Mexico, and the Appalachians through Georgia.

The original vision of the founder of the Appalachian Trail in 1924 was that it would be a ìwildway,î Foreman asserted. Foreman envisions the reintroduction here of the Eastern cougar ó ìthe keystone predator of the Appalachiansî ó and the extending of a wildlands network down to Florida.

ìThis is a vision ó a possible one,î he said.

ìWith global climate change,î he continued, ìweíre going to see species move up, move northî into higher latitudes and elevations. In the past, there were no barriers to such migrations, but ìthis time, it could happen very, very quickly, and weíve got all these barriers, and all our stuff, in the way.î

But the work of rewilding is already underway. ìWithin my lifetime, we could see wolves from the Canadian Rockies to Mexico. It could happenî because of the reintroductions of wolves being carried out. Black-footed ferrets are another nearly extinct species that is now rebounding, he noted, after conservationists including Foreman reintroduced them.

The Fish and Wildlife Service a decade ago came up with 20 possible sites for reintroducing the Eastern cougar, including many in the Southern Appalachians ó but the studies are buried, Foreman claimed. ìWe need to dig those (site recommendations) up (from the libraries) and start agitating for them again. Because we arenít going to have a healthy Southern Appalachian forest unless we have cougars back again, to help control the overabundant white-tailed deer, and also to help control some pigs. This is what we need as our flagship for rewilding the Southern Appalachians and indeed, the whole Appalachian spine, the Appalachian wildlands.î

The purpose of saving the wilderness is not just for economics, and not just to feel good about oneself, he said. ìI think there is a recognition that has been the bedrock of the conservation mind, though we havenít always talked about it publicly ó a recognition that things donít live for us, that they exist for themselves. That they are. That the Earthís product is this deep dance of life, and that they exist for their own sake ... and it is our responsibility to protect these other species that are endangered by our actions ... and bring (them) back for their own sake.

ìAldo Leopold, the great 20th-century naturalist, said, ëThe last word in ignorance is the person who asks about an animal,

ìWhat good is it?îí And my rejoinder to that is, ëWhat good are you?í I donít say that in certain bars, mind you!î †

Foreman ended by discussing the need to get back to the ìethical basis for conservation ó to a value base. To the recognition that we have been causing this huge problem here on Earth and we have a deep, deep responsibility to right that problem ... to do whatever it is that we can do to save the building blocks of evolution, so that there is some future, some eternity of wilderness thatís out there in the unimaginable future.

ìSo join with me ó letís welcome the wild back in every way we can,î Foreman concluded. Then he led the audience in a wolf howl.